The Midnight Ride of Cyclocross is great for many reasons, not the least of which is the Happy Taco truck.
Imagine, then, the disappointment in the assembled when informed of a delayed opening.
Eventually, it did, and sad became happy.
Wanting to see how I did against riders my own age, I searched
Cross Results filtering for the 40-49 age group.
And didn't find my name.
I checked 50-59 ... there I was.
Despite being 49, I'm apparently so slow that I didn't even place in my own age group.
(Subsequent investigation revealed that while road racing is based on your age in the calendar year in which you race,
your 'cross age is based on your age at the end of the season in February. With a January birthday, that makes me 50 already.)
Aging up didn't exactly do me any favors--I finished 80 of 102 overall (78% of the way back) versus 7 of 9 in the 50-59 age group (78% of the way back).
I ended up finishing 2 seconds in back of a kid so young he (literally) had to have his mother sign his registration form.
If I'd been thinking more clearly, I would have tried to distract him at the finish with Pokemon cards.
In one of my best CX accomplishments to date, as the second video above attests, I had a great end to lap 4 (of 5).
After negotiating the barriers, I'd been remounting right away throughout the race while most other riders were running to the top of the hill.
During my pre-ride, I'd tried both and remounting immediately was clearly faster.
As a result, I was able to wend my way through the scrum, passing 4 riders and then shortly thereafter a 5th.
I held them off throughout lap 5, the result being a boost from 85th to 80th place.
My plan had been to end with this. The singlespeed race featured the men starting just a minute ahead of the women.
Late in the race, I was watching near the finish line when I saw a female rider passing a few male riders.
I'm pretty sure that this was none other than Mo Bruno Roy.
I don't know Mo, but learned a bit about her personality by watching her riding style.
Specifically, as she passed each of two male riders toward the end of the
race, she took the time to pat them playfully on the ass.
Their reactions were priceless--not just "beaten by a girl," but goosed at the same time.
But I HAVE to end with this.
The second to last event was the women's Pro/1/2/3/4 race.
(This was at 7p, well after my 4p start, because these women are actually good and therefore get to ride under the lights.)
Now, having pros and Cat 4s out on the course at the same time creates quite a wide talent gap.
UK star Helen Wyman had some early competition from a local woman, but quickly built an insurmountable gap.
(Helen runs "High Tea with Helen," a training "camp" held for a few hours the Tuesday and Wednesday before the race itself.)
I was at the finish line as Helen approached for the easy win.
There was a slower rider ahead of Helen, but the finishing straight was wide and Helen could easily have made the pass before crossing the line.
Instead, Helen "sat up."
(That's cyclingese for taking the pressure off the pedals and easing way back.)
At the time, I thought, "Pretty cool, that lets the other woman get another lap in."
To steal the vernacular of Internet click-bait, I wasn't prepared for (and didn't see)
what happened next.
